“The Telegraph”

Drinking (Moderately) Helps Mens’ Sexual Performance

Beer (Preuss Podcast)

To a certain extent, we’ve been conditioned by the media to think that having sex after drinking might not be the best thing for me (see: whiskey dick). And that’s true. But moderately imbibing might actually help a man’s sexual performance.

The Keogh Institute for Medical Research at the University of Western Australia in Nedlands surveyed 1.5K+-1.7K+ men (for some reason, I couldn’t find an exact number) about their sexual performance, specifically with respect to sexual dysfunction. The moderate drinkers reported 25%-30% fewer problems than men who didn’t drink at all. This percentage took into account age, smoking habits, and heart disease, all of which affect penile function.

But there is one issue with this study’s results: nobody asked the subjects’ partners if they were satisfied!

How Many Children are Born on New Year’s Day?

Baby (Dermatique UK)

Happy 2016! I hope it’s off to a good start for everyone, and your resolutions are intact so far.

In the spirit of the season, I was curious to find out how common New Year’s Day births are. No more auspicious time for a baby to make its debut, right?

The United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics kept records of popular birthdays from 1995 to 2014. As you can see below, New Year’s Day sees around 200 fewer births than any given day in England:

U.K. Average Daily Births (The Telegraph UK/Office for National Statistics)

If you absorb best by color-coded blocks, here’s every day of the year plotted out:

Birth registrations in England and Wales, 1995-2014 (The Telegraph UK/Office for National Statistics)

Click on the link to go to the whole table (it’s interactive). Jan. 1st can only claim 1,574 births, which makes it the 364th most-popular birthday.

I don’t know enough to hypothesize if birth patterns are the same in the United States, but I’d love to find out.

Rome Considers Zone of Tolerance for Prostitutes

Italian prostitutes (The Telegraph)

The Roman neighborhood of EUR is considering enacting various “zones of tolerance” around the city within which prostitution would be legal. Certain places would off-limits, such as public parks, churches and schools. This makes sense: A country-wide law dictates that cities can issue boundaries on where prostitution can and cannot occur. This is a bit of a legal loophole in Italy, where aiding prostitution is illegal (but restricting it to certain areas is fine), but paying for sex is totally cool.

Naturally, the prostitutes themselves are not happy with this, as it would cut into their business. The Catholic Church isn’t too pleased either, for obvious reasons.

There are precedents for these zones: In 2012, Montreal was mulling a similar thing, but wanted to restrict it to one street, away from the busy main thoroughfare. In 2006, the English town of Ipswich considered a tolerance zone after a spate of prostitute murders shook the community.

EUR hasn’t come (heh) to a conclusion yet, but it’ll be interesting to see what precedent this sets for the city, Italy and the rest of the world.

Sex & The ’60s: Joan Holloway Inspires Brits to Get Boob Jobs

‘Mad Men’ season 1 still with Christina Hendricks (The Telegraph UK)

This week, we’re examining sexuality data from the 1960s, in celebration of the upcoming final half-season of “Mad Men” beginning Apr. 5th.

Happy Friday! Bombshell Joan Holloway (and the gorgeous actress behind the character, Christina Hendricks) has become well-known for her dangerous curves throughout the course of “Mad Men.” (That’s not editorializing, that’s a fact, and everyone agrees.) In Britain, Hendricks is credited with sparking an increase in breast implants.

In a 2011 article in “The Telegraph,” the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) found that the number of women having “breast augmentations” rose 10%+ in 2010 from the 2009 figure. This equals out to 9K+ British women per year.

The BAAPS estimates that overall plastic surgery procedures have tripled from 10.7K+ in 2003 to 36.4K+ in 2009.

A BAAPS source suggested that Hendricks was an influence, especially with the hourglass figure coming back into fashion. But the source wasn’t the only one to name-check Hendricks for her curves. Britain’s Equalities Minister and Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone proclaimed Hendricks to be “fabulous” while urging the need for more curvy role models. And she would know: Featherstone was voted the “most fanciable MP in Parliament” in 2010.

Sex & Stats: Where Numbers Come to Bang

Statistics. Economics. Sex.